Customer research

Customer research is a systematic process that involves gathering and analysing first-hand information about a company’s target market, including customer preferences, needs, behaviours, and motivations. The aim of customer research is to gain insights into the factors that influence the actions of potential customers so that businesses can tailor their products and services to meet the needs of their target audience better. 

It starts with talking with real customers about their experiences with a brand and the larger industry. For example, if a business has a financial product, we will talk to customers and potential customers about their experience with the product, but also about their larger financial understanding, needs, and concerns.

Where customer research is different to ‘just chatting with customers’ is the way in which the interviews are conducted and the data is processed. We can’t just ask customers what they want. We need to figure out the unmet need by exploring the whole customer landscape, uncovering what currently works and doesn’t work, what areas are missing and what potential desires customers have that they might not know they have.

There are many different techniques in customer research that we use, but all of them are 1-on-1. We prefer these methods over group research, like focus groups. Find out more about our in-depth customer research.

Customer research allows businesses to tailor their customer service offerings to better meet their clients’ needs. By understanding the pain points and challenges that customers face, businesses can develop solutions that address these issues and improve the overall customer experience. Customer service research can also identify areas where businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and establish themselves as leaders in their field. 

But the most important reason for customer research is that customers are human. They don’t always act logically or in the way a business would like them to, even if customers want what the business is offering. We know that being healthy is better for people, but many people don’t always look after their health in the best way possible. It’s not because people don’t want to be healthier or feel that being healthy is a lie; it’s because of a host of human factors that sway behaviour. Customer research focuses on why customers behave a certain way and what motivates them to ensure that the business iterates its offering to best serve these human factors.

Focus groups have their place in market research and can be extremely valuable, but we have found that we gain a far deeper understanding of customers when we interview them individually. This is mainly because of the types of questions we need to answer. We are not asking which design they like more or what their opinion is on a certain subject. We need to discover the nuances of a customer’s decision-making process and dive deep into potentially sensitive topics that take time to uncover.

We also need a customer’s story to be unaffected by other people’s opinions or even silenced by someone with a louder personality. For these reasons, we specialise in one-on-one, in-depth UX research sessions.